Feeling Unhappy? Down and Out? Here are 3 Life-Changing Ideas from Eckhart Tolle to Calm Your Mind and Take Back Control
Feeling unhappy is said to be a part of life. People even say: life does not always give you roses.
Nothing can be further from the truth.
And in this short post, we will look at how you and i and everyone else can understand what really is and what is not. And we look at what Eckhart Tolle says about it.
How to Stop Being Unhappy
If our mind is working fine and even in cases it is not, understanding that most of the unhappiness we feel is because of how we perceive the situation helps us get better control over the event.
This is a big leap. Since it puts the onus on us rather than the easy-to-blame world.
It is perhaps the most difficult thing we have to do in our lives. But if you achieve this state of objective consciousness, then you get perspective.
Unhappiness will still exist in your life (and some life events are sad and we have a right to be unhappy during such moments) but it will never overwhelm you.
Here is what the Tolle says:
The primary cause of unhappiness is never the situation but your thoughts about it.
– A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life’s Purpose
To change your life and understand this perspective, you have to do two things: seize the present moment and calm your mind. Here is how:
The Power of the Present Moment
The present moment gives you power to act in whichever way you choose. You may feel overwhelmed by life and unable to take control but that act itself is a decision you have taken. You can feel overwhelmed and go on that road or you can break down the event into smaller causes and open up new ways to act. Not react. Act.
Each decision you make puts you on a road – short or long – and you can choose whether you want to go on that road or stop, look around you and step off. It is your call. All you need to do is Act.
Realize deeply that the present moment is all you have. Make the NOW the primary focus of your life.
– Eckhart Tolle, The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment
How to Calm your Mind
The journey to achieve any form of success starts with looking inward and finding your purpose. For that, you need to calm your thoughts and slow down your racing mind. To do that, you need to put the phone down, close your laptop (or desktop), put down anything you are carrying and sit down in a quiet corner of the room or house.
Here is what the mind does every single moment unless you calm it down
Silence is critical to looking inward. Here is what Eckhart Tolle says:
Look for [the unmanifested] in the silence from which sound comes and to which they return.
Pay more attention to the silence than to the sounds. Paying attention to outer silence creates inner silence: the mind becomes still.
– The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment
To sum up:
Life is not easy. We agree but life is also not tough like it used to be for our ancestors. Now, if you work hard, you usually get what you want. If you work hard and smart, you get ahead of others. If you understand yourself, appreciate the nature of emotions to hijack our minds and spend your days doing work you like, you create the life others can only dream of.
Act now. One minute or 60 seconds is all it takes to start.
